Ozempic Lawsuit Alleges Woman Experienced Severe Bowel Obstruction Injuries

Woman was hospitalized with life-threatening bowel injuries following her use of the diabetes and weight loss drug, lawsuit claims.

A North Carolina woman has filed a lawsuit, claiming that she suffered a painful bowel obstruction and other serious injuries due to a lack of adequate warnings about the potential risks users face from Ozempic side effects.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Sheila Ross in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 22, naming Novo Nordisk, Ozempic’s manufacturer, as the defendant.

Ozempic (semaglutide) is part of a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists that began as type 2 diabetes treatments and also includes Mounjaro, Trulicity, Victoza and others. However, the class has begun to be formulated and prescribed as popular weight loss drugs as well, sold under the brand names Wegovy and Zepbound.

Along with the rising popularity of Ozempic and similar drugs has come a rise in reports of serious side effects, such as bowel obstruction, stomach paralysis and even vision loss. This has led to a growing number of Ozempic lawsuits, Wegovy lawsuits and Mounjaro lawsuits being filed by individuals nationwide in recent months.

In her lawsuit, Ross indicates that she began using Ozempic in March 2020, after it was prescribed for the treatment of her type 2 diabetes. However, she claims that Ozempic side effects left her with a devastating bowel obstruction.

As a result of the obstruction from Ozempic, Ross was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. Those side effects resulted in severe, permanent injuries that were life-threatening, she states.

According to the compalint, Novo Nordisk knew, or should have known, that Ozempic bowel obstruction risks are inherent to the entire class of medications, which work by delaying gastric emptying. The lawsuit notes that as early as 2016, the company was aware that Ozempic users in clinical trials suffered a higher rate of bowel obstructions than those given a placebo, but still failed to add adequate label warnings.

“Defendants knew or should have known of the causal association between the use of GLP-1RAs and the risk of developing bowel obstructions and their sequelae,” Ross’s lawsuit states. “Defendants’ actual and constructive knowledge derived from their clinical studies, case reports, and the medical literature, including the medical literature and case reports referenced in this Complaint.”

Ross presents claims of negligent failure to warn, strict product liability failure to warn, negligent design defect, breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation. She is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

Ozempic Side Effect Lawsuits

Ross’s complaint will join more than 1,800 other GLP-1 lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system, which have been centralized in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under U.S. District Judge Karen Marston, as part of a GLP-1 lawsuit multidistrict litigation (MDL).

To help test how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be central throughout thousands of individual claims, Judge Marston is presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings to prepare a small group of cases for early trial dates.

While the outcomes of these early test cases will not be binding on other claims, they will be closely watched and may help the parties negotiate GLP-1 settlements to resolve large numbers of lawsuits in the future.